Wednesday, 5 March 2014

City on fire: Anti-government protesters clashing with police in the centre of Kiev in Ukraine. — AFP

The ousters of
democratically-elected leaders have often been carried out directly or
indirectly by champions of democracy themselves.

IF Ukraine is on the brink of a catastrophe, it is mainly because
the present regime in Kiev and its supporters, backed by certain
Wes­tern powers, violated a fundamental principle of democratic
governance. They ousted a democratically-elected president through
illegal means.

President Viktor Yanukovich, who had come to power through a free
and fair election in 2010, should have been removed through the ballot
box.

His opponents not only betrayed a democratic principle. They
subverted a “Peace Deal” signed between them and Yanukovich on Feb 21 in
which the latter had agreed to form a national unity government within
10 days that would include opposition representatives; reinstate the
2004 Constitution; relinquish control over Ukraine’s security services;
and hold presidential and parliamentary elections by December.

According to the deal, endorsed by Germany, France and Poland, Yanu­kovich would remain president until the elections.

His co-signatories had no intention of honouring the agreement.

Without following procedures, the parliament – with the backing of
the military – voted immediately to remove Yanukovich and impeach him.
The parliamentary speaker was elected interim president and after a few
days a new regime was in­­stalled.

One of the first acts of parliament was to proclaim that Ukrainian
is the sole official language of the country, thus downgrading the
Russian language, the mother tongue of one-fifth of the population.

Anti-Russian rhetoric which had become more strident than ever in
the course of the protest against the Yanukovich government has reached a
crescendo in the wake of the overthrow of the government.

The protest gives us an idea of some of the underlying issues that have brought Ukraine to the precipice.

There was undoubtedly a great deal of anger in the western part of
the country, including Kiev, over the decision of the Russian-backed
Yanu­kovich to reject closer economic ties with the European Union (EU)
in favour of financial assistance from Moscow.

It explains to some extent the massive demonstrations of the last
few months. Police brutality, corruption within the government and
cronyism associated with Yanu­kovich had further incensed the people.

But these legitimate concerns tell only one side of the story. The
protest movement had also brought to the fore neo-Nazis and fascists
sworn to violence. Armed and organised groups such as the Svoboda and
the Right Sector provide muscle power to the protest.

They are known to have targeted Jewish synagogues and Eastern Orthodox Christian churches.

It is the militias associated with these groups that are in control of street politics in Kiev.

Elites in Germany, France, Britain, the United States and within the
Nato establishment as a whole are very much aware of the role of
neo-Nazi and fascist elements in the protest and in the current Kiev
regime.

Indeed, certain American and European leaders had instigated the
demonstrators and were directly involved in the machinations to bring
down Yanukovich.

US Assistant Secretary of State for Europe Victoria Nuland had in
her infamous telephone conversation with the US Ambassador to Ukraine
admitted that her country had spent US$5bil (approximately RM16bil)
promoting anti-Russian groups in Ukraine.

For the United States and the Euro­pean Union, control over Ukraine serves at least two goals.

It expands their military reach through Nato right up to the
doorstep of Russia, challenging the latter’s time-honoured relationship
with its strategic neighbour. It brings Ukraine within the EU’s economic
sphere.

Even as it is, almost half of Ukraine’s US$35bil (RM115bil) debt is
owed to Western banks, which would want the country to adopt austerity
measures to remunerate them.

It is largely because of these geopolitical and geo-economic
challenges that Russian President Vladi­mir Putin is flexing his
military muscles in Crimea, in the eastern Ukraine region, which not
only has a preponderantly Russian-speaking population but is also home
to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. Besides, Ukraine is the cradle of Russian
civilisation.

This is why Putin will go all out to protect Russian interests in
Ukraine, but at the same time, there is every reason to believe that he
will avoid a military confrontation and try to work out a political
solution based upon the Peace Deal.

The catastrophe in Ukraine reveals five dimensions in the politics of the ouster of democratically-elected governments:

The determined drive to overthrow the government by dissidents and opponents, which is often un­­compromising;

The exploitation of genuine people-related issues and grievances;

The mobilisation of a significant segment of the populace behind these mass concerns;

The resort to violence through militant groups often with a pronounced right-wing orientation; and

The forging of strong linkages between domestic anti-government
forces and Western governments and other Western actors, including
banks and non-governmental organisations, whose collective aim is to
perpetuate Western control and dominance or Western hegemony.

Some of these dimensions are also present in Venezuela where there
is another concerted attempt to oust a democratically-elected
government.

Some genuine economic grievances related to the rising cost of
living and unemployment are being manipulated and distorted to give the
erroneous impression that the Maduro government does not care for the
people.

President Nicolas Maduro, it is alleged, is suppressing dissent with brutal force.

The truth is that a lot of the violence is emanating from groups
linked to disgruntled elites who are opposed to the egalitarian policies
pursued by Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chavez.

They are disseminating fake pictures through social media as part of
their false propaganda about the Venezuelan government’s violence
against the people – pictures which have now been exposed for what they
are by media analysts.

Support for this propaganda and for the street protests in Venezuela
comes from US foundations such as the National Endowment for Demo­cracy
(NED). It has been estimated that in 2012 alone, the NED gave more than
US$1.3mil (RM4mil) to organisations and projects in Vene­zuela
ostensibly to promote “human rights,” “democratic ideas” and
“accountability.”

The majority of Venezuelans have no doubt at all that this funding
is to undermine a government which is not only determined to defend the
nation’s independence in the face of Washington’s dominance but is also
pioneering a movement to strengthen regional cooperation in Latin
Ame­rica and the Caribbean as a bulwark against the US’ hegemonic
agenda.

It is because other countries in the region such as Bolivia, Brazil,
Argen­tina, Nicaragua, Uruguay, and Paraguay know what the US elite is
trying to do in Venezuela that they have described “the recent violent
acts” in the country “ as attempts to destabilise the democratic order.”

A third country where a democratically-elected leader is under
tremendous pressure from street demonstrators at this juncture is
Thailand.

Though some of the issues articulated by the demonstrators are
legitimate, the fact remains that they do not represent majority
sentiment which is still in favour of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra
and her exiled brother, former Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra.

As in Ukraine and Venezuela, violence – albeit on a much lower scale
– has seeped into the struggle for power between the incumbent and the
protesters. However, foreign involvement is not that obvious to most of
us.

Both Yingluck and the protest movement are regarded as pro-Western.
Nonetheless, there are groups in Washington and London who perceive the
current government in Bangkok as more inclined towards China compared to
the opposition Democratic Party or the protesters.

Is this one of the reasons why a section of the mainstream Western media appears to be supportive of the demonstrations?

There are a number of other instances of democratically-elected leaders being overthrown by illegal means.

The most recent – in July 2013 – was the unjust ouster of President
Mohamed Morsi of Egypt. In 1973, President Salvador Al­­lende of Chile
was killed in a coup engineered by the CIA.

Another democratically-elec­ted leader who was manoeuvred out of
office and jailed as a result of a Bri­­tish-US plot was Mohammed
Mosad­degh of Iran in 1953.

It is only too apparent that in most cases the ouster of
democratically-elected leaders have been carried out directly or
indirectly by the self-proclaimed champions of democracy themselves! It
reveals how hypocritical they are.

What really matters to the elites in the United States, Britain and
other Western countries is not de­­mocracy but the perpetuation of their
hegemonic power. Hegemony, not democracy, has always been their object
of worship.

By Chandra Muzaffar - The Star/Asia News Network> Dr Chandra Muzaffar is president of the International
Movement for a Just World (JUST). The views expressed are entirely the
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